Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)

Although the term 'apocalypse' is often used to refer to a catastrophic event it literally means 'to unveil' and, pre-biblically, signified the unveiling of a virgin bride. It is in the sense of the apocalypse as an 'unveiling' that, in a discussion of George Eliot'...

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Autor principal:	Ryan Barnett
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	University of Edinburgh 2007
Materias:	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e6b181791ab54d69979d7bd7299c8e3a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e6b181791ab54d69979d7bd7299c8e3a2021-11-23T09:46:01ZBehind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)1749-9771https://doaj.org/article/e6b181791ab54d69979d7bd7299c8e3a2007-12-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.forumjournal.org/article/view/585https://doaj.org/toc/1749-9771Although the term 'apocalypse' is often used to refer to a catastrophic event it literally means 'to unveil' and, pre-biblically, signified the unveiling of a virgin bride. It is in the sense of the apocalypse as an 'unveiling' that, in a discussion of George Eliot's 1859 novella The Lifted Veil and Wilkie Collins's 1876 novel The Two Destinies, I will explore the links between the notion of apocalypse and the 'secret' of female sexuality. In Eliot's and Collin's stories, I argue, female sexuality is portrayed as an apocalyptic secret that exists above and beyond the play of veiling and unveiling. Indeed, when the veil concealing this apocalyptic secret is lifted, in Eliot's and Collins's text, the revelation reveals only a blank, an absence. In this sense, I claim, The Lifted Veil and The Two Destinies can be said to anticipate Jacques Derrida's assertion, in his essay "Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy," that the final veil of the apocalypse cannot be lifted, that it remains always 'to come.' The apocalyptic secret of female sexuality, which lies behind the veil in Eliot's and Collins's texts, I conclude, mirrors the secret that literature itself represents: a secret that, like the apocalypse and female sexuality, is radically unknowable. For both Eliot and Collins, it seems, the apocalypse is never 'now,' but only ever the constantly deferred promise of an unveiling 'to come.'Ryan BarnettUniversity of EdinburgharticleFine ArtsNLanguage and LiteraturePENForum, Iss 05, Pp 1-13 (2007)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P
spellingShingle	Fine Arts N Language and Literature P Ryan Barnett Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)
description	Although the term 'apocalypse' is often used to refer to a catastrophic event it literally means 'to unveil' and, pre-biblically, signified the unveiling of a virgin bride. It is in the sense of the apocalypse as an 'unveiling' that, in a discussion of George Eliot's 1859 novella The Lifted Veil and Wilkie Collins's 1876 novel The Two Destinies, I will explore the links between the notion of apocalypse and the 'secret' of female sexuality. In Eliot's and Collin's stories, I argue, female sexuality is portrayed as an apocalyptic secret that exists above and beyond the play of veiling and unveiling. Indeed, when the veil concealing this apocalyptic secret is lifted, in Eliot's and Collins's text, the revelation reveals only a blank, an absence. In this sense, I claim, The Lifted Veil and The Two Destinies can be said to anticipate Jacques Derrida's assertion, in his essay "Of an Apocalyptic Tone Recently Adopted in Philosophy," that the final veil of the apocalypse cannot be lifted, that it remains always 'to come.' The apocalyptic secret of female sexuality, which lies behind the veil in Eliot's and Collins's texts, I conclude, mirrors the secret that literature itself represents: a secret that, like the apocalypse and female sexuality, is radically unknowable. For both Eliot and Collins, it seems, the apocalypse is never 'now,' but only ever the constantly deferred promise of an unveiling 'to come.'
format	article
author	Ryan Barnett
author_facet	Ryan Barnett
author_sort	Ryan Barnett
title	Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)
title_short	Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)
title_full	Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)
title_fullStr	Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)
title_full_unstemmed	Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)
title_sort	behind the veil: gender and apocalypse in george eliot’s the lifted veil (1859) and wilkie collins’s the two destinies (1876)
publisher	University of Edinburgh
publishDate	2007
url	https://doaj.org/article/e6b181791ab54d69979d7bd7299c8e3a
work_keys_str_mv	AT ryanbarnett behindtheveilgenderandapocalypseingeorgeeliotstheliftedveil1859andwilkiecollinssthetwodestinies1876
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Behind the Veil: Gender and Apocalypse in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil (1859) and Wilkie Collins’s The Two Destinies (1876)

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